October 2018

Caleb's 8th grade soccer team friends

Stephen loved playing soccer

Warm October day at the beach

Hiking with Gabrielse at Saugatuck State Park

Costume Grandma J made when I was a kid. Stephen didn't wear it, but oh cuteness

Wolverine and a ninja

Impressive pumpkins thanks to Nate and Aunt Steph

Batgirl

Luke, Isaac and Levi

Korean BBQ with Jee 

Windy City

Lincoln Park Zoo

Sister love

Cleaning out the basement- off to the dump

Apple picking

-Caleb had a great soccer season. He played on defense- primarily stopper/defensive mid. Caleb played the whole game, every game. It was fun to watch him!
-Isaac also had a fun soccer season, unfortunately we didn't get any good pictures.  He primarily played on defense and has a strong left foot.
-Julia had an impressive cheer season. A couple of Saturdays she cheered double-headers, so she cheered for 3 hours straight.
-Kindergarten soccer is my favorite age to watch- you pretty much smile the whole game. The kids have no idea what they are doing, but they are so excited to play. Stephen enjoyed having Nate coach him and cousin Dallas and neighbor Samuel were both on the team.
-Our basement was a mess. We had mold growing, too much moisture in the air and it smelled. A couple of companies gave us outrageously expensive quotes to waterproof the basement. Thankfully we got helpful advice from a local contractor. We bought a bigger, better dehumidifier (pretty sure ours hadn't been working for about 2 years..), installed some new ductwork, the contractor repaired our egress windows (which were leaking, even though someone else had "fixed" them 6 yrs ago), had our air ducts cleaned, threw out all the smelly furniture, and sprayed every surface in the basement with Benefact Decon 30.  The whole process was stressful and alot of work. However, the moisture/mold is gone and the basement is mostly put back together. It feels like our house owns us right now- time and money.  But, this should just be a season and hopefully most of the projects are behind us. Except we need a new roof and have a leaky sunroom, home ownership for the win.
-During fall break, the kids and I went to Wheaton and visited my grandparents for supper. We then stayed one night in a hotel with a pool. Aunt Steph flew out and met up with us in Chicago. We did the Lincoln Park Zoo, had supper at a cousin's house and stayed at a VRBO rental for a night.  Julia and Stacy also met up with Jee's family for Korean BBQ. Steph then came back to Holland with us and we celebrated Grandpa Jongsma's retirement.
-The outage was supposed to begin Oct 28, but something broke and the outage began 2 weeks early. Nate is the outage manager so this is his thing. This outage he is working 3 am-4 pm everyday.
-I tried to convince Lexi to wear a cute bunny costume for Halloween, but she was not having it. A superhero who has claws- sign her up! And overall Lexi does not scratch people anymore when she is upset. But she still likes the idea of being able to "scratch bad guys." Julia went trick or treating with a friend and Isaac had his friends come here. The littles made it thru our whole neighborhood for the first time.
-And we had some forced family fun- apple picking.